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Dictionary/B
These pages comprise a dictionary of terms relating to the pipe organ. Please keep definitions to a few sentences, and do not include pictures or sound clips. When more space is needed for a term, a new page can be created for it. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ---- Bach, Johann Sebastian 1685-1750 - Baroque-period organist, composer, and church musician, arguably the most important composer of organ music. Most prominent member of a large family of musicians, including several of his sons, he was the last bloom of the Baroque period, synsthesizing aspects of the French and Italian styles into his native German heritage, and transcending them all. Organ music includes Toccatas, Preludes and Fugues, Fantasias, etc., and much service music based on the German Lutheran chorale tradition. Backfall noun a lever used in a mechanical action to convert "push" motion into "pull" motion. Backfall Bridge Balanced Action Band Organ Barker Lever noun - a pneumatic device used in some large mechanical-action organs for reducing the amount of force needed to depress keys. First successfully introduced by Cavaillé-Coll in his ground-breaking instrument at St. Denis in 1841, but versions of it are still being built today. Barpfeife noun - an 8' manual reed with short resonators, yielding a soft growling tone. Beard noun a feature of some wooden flue pipes, a piece of wood protruding horizontally immediately below the mouth, extending for the entire width of the mouth. Used to improve pipe speech Bearers noun in a slider chest, the pieces of wood between the sliders on which the toeboard rests. Bearing Shaft Beating Reed noun a reed or reed pipe in which the reed (tongue) beats against the shallot, the type of reed most commonly found in organs today. Synonym: Striking Reed. Compare with Free Reed. Bedos, Dom (François Lamathe Bédos de Celles de Salelles) 1709-1779 - Dom Bedos de Celles OSB was a monk of Holy Cross Abbey in Bordeaux in France. He built organs and wrote textbooks on organ building. Bell noun a flared top surmounting some flue pipes and reed pipe resonators. Bellows Bench noun that portion of an organ console on which the organist sits whilst playing. Block noun 1. the portion of a wooden flue pipe at the base, to which the sides and cap are fastened, and in which the windway is usually cut. 2. the portion of a reed pipe into which the shallot, tongue, wedge, and resonator are fitted, and over which the boot fits; commonly made of lead. Blockflöte noun - a flue organ stop, usually open metal and at 4' or 2' pitch, yielding a bright flute tone. Its name is the German word for "recorder". Blockwerk noun Before the invention of the device to turn on and off individual ranks of pipes, now called "stops", an entire division in which all the ranks always speak at once, like a giant mixture. Obsolescent in the 14th century. Blower noun a device for creating the wind (compressed air) on which an organ speaks. Body noun the portion of a flue pipe above the block or languid. Bombarde noun 1. a chorus reed of powerful tone. 2. a division that includes powerful chorus reeds. Bombardenwerk noun - German term for the Bombarde division, see above. Book Pneumatic Boot noun - a hollow removable shell that covers the tongue and shallot of a reed pipe, fits over the block, and includes the toe which rests on the windchest. Bore noun - synonym for Toe Hole. Borrowed adjective - a term used to describe a stop with no pipes of its own, which uses pipes from another stop. The two stops are typically at the same pitch but played from different keyboards, otherwise the term "Unification" is usually used. Borstwerk noun Dutch synonym for Brustwerk. Bottom-board noun a board which forms the bottom (or a portion thereof) of a wind chest, often removable for maintenance. Bourdon noun - a stopped flute, of wood or metal, found at 16', 8', or 4' pitches, in all divisions of the instrument. From the French word for "buzz", German synonym is "Gedeckt", British synonym is "Stopped Diapason". Boutique Bovenwerk noun - Dutch synonym for Oberwerk. Bridge Brustpositiv noun - another name for "Brustwerk", see below. Brustwerk noun a division named because of its placement in the "breast" (brust) of an organ; that is, approximately in the center of the case, above the keydesk. Because of the height limitation it is traditionally the highest-pitched division in the Werkprinzip scheme, with room for pipes of a maximum 4' length. Frequently constructed with doors on the front. Brødrene Torkildsen — Norwegian organ building firm. Bung Button Buxtehude, Dietrich (1636-1707) - an important pre-Bach composer, organist and church musician. He worked in north Germany or Denmark, and Bach visited him as a young man, to hear the Abendmusiken concerts for which he was famous.